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Eukleidas’ Revolutionary Facing Athena Tetradrachm
A Triumph of Art and a Failure of Technology

896171. Sold For $395000

SICILY, Syracuse. Struck circa 405 BC. AR Tetradrachm (25mm, 16.98 g, 11h). Reverse die signed by Eukleidas. Fast quadriga driven left by female charioteer, holding reins in her left hand and raising a flaming torch in her right; above, Nike flying right to crown her; in exergue, ear of barley with stalk. / ΣΥ –Ρ – ΑΚ – ΟΣΙΩΝ. Head of Athena, inclined slightly to the left, wearing crested helmet, the cheek pieces raised on the sides, the visor and front of the helmet ornamented with vine and palmettes, the hair flowing back from the temples and down the neck, iris and pupil shown, double-hook earrings and necklace of pendant acorns with central medallion; across the bowl of the helmet the signature ΕV-Κ–ΛΕΙΔ-Α; around, two pairs of dolphins, the left pair swimming downwards (and partly missing due to the die break), the right pair snout to snout, the lower one emerging from behind a mass of hair.

Principal references (all to the same dies):

L.O. Tudeer. Die Tetradrachmenprägung von Syrakus in der Periode der Signierenden Künstler, Berlin, 1913, no. 58.

G.E. Rizzo. Monete greche della Sicilia, 2 vols.,Rome, 1946, pl. 43, no. 22.

Maria R.-Alfoldi, Eukleidas – ein Goldschmied?, in H. Nilsson, Ed., Florilegium Numismaticum: Studia in Honorem U. Westermark, Stockholm,1992, no. 8.

E.S.G. Robinson, et al. A Catalogue of the Calouste Gulbenkian Collection of Greek Coins, Lisbon, 1971, no. 282 and frontispiece.

C. Kraay & M. Hirmer. Greek Coins, New York, 1966, no. 111 (reverse only).

Extremely Fine, struck from early state dies and among the finest known.

One of 18 recorded specimens from these dies, at least 11 of which are in museums. The first facing female head in the Syracusan series, a revolutionary advance in engraving of great beauty and artistic importance.


From a European private collection and outside of Italy prior to 19th of January 2011. Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 59 (4-5 April 2011), lot 532.

Eukleidas and the Sicilian Master Engravers

In the history of Greek coinage, and indeed in the entire history of numismatics, the work of Sicilian engravers of the late 5th century BC is generally considered the pinnacle of the die engraver’s art. Cities competed to produce the most beautiful coins, and engravers competed to engrave the most beautiful dies, culminating in a period toward the end of the 5th century when a series of master engravers not only created sensational original designs in the finest style of the period but also signed their dies, demonstrating their abilities to their contemporaries and recording their achievements for posterity. This tetradrachm, and particularly its reverse die with the facing head of Athena, represents the masterwork of Eukleidas, one of the greatest of the Sicilian engravers.

The beauty of this representation of Athena is attested by one simple note. In the last century, Calouste Gulbenkian assembled what was generally considered to be the finest private collection of Greek coins. In a letter of 12 September 1946 to E.S.G. Robinson, Gulbenkian’s friend and advisor, Gulbenkian wrote as follows: “My aim is to make a very fine collection of Greek coins, purely from an artistic point of view. In this respect, I want to confine myself to such specimens as are of the finest preservation and most remarkable beauty.” When Robinson later composed the first volume in the catalogue of Gulbenkian’s collection, which includes many of the most artistic Greek coins in existence, the illustration that Robinson selected for the frontispiece of the catalogue was Eukleidas’ facing head of Athena. It is simply one of the most beautiful compositions in numismatic history.

The Facing Head of Athena

Eukleidas’ die for the present coin represents a revolutionary artistic innovation. For the first time in the long series of Syracusan coinage, the female head is depicted not in profile but facing the viewer. Athena, also appearing here for the first time in Syracusan numismatic art, is decked with a richly decorated helmet from beneath which full locks of hair fall on both sides of the face, and dolphins swim around her head.

The unexpected depiction of Athena rather than Arethusa -- the nymph of the freshwater spring on the island of Ortygia in Syracuse’s harbor -- has led to considerable commentary. It has been suggested that the appearance of Athena refers to Syracuse’s victory over the Athenian invasion of 415 BC. The presence of the dolphins -- traditionally depicted around the head of Arethusa -- has even led to the suggestion that we are in fact looking at Arethusa wearing Athena’s helmet in commemoration of the Syracusan victory. However, Athena was also worshipped in Syracuse, and her temple on the island of Ortygia survives, incorporated into the present day cathedral. The dolphins are therefore equally appropriate for Athena as they are for Arethusa, and it is not a surprise that Athena should be honored on a coin of Syracuse.

On the tetradrachms of Syracuse, the chariot always occupied the obverse (bottom) die, and the head (previously of Arethusa) always appeared on the reverse (top) die. Eukleidas, accordingly, engraved his facing head of Athena as a reverse die. However, in this revolutionary design, the deeper relief of the facing head increased the stress on the reverse die. As a result, the die must have broken upon almost its first use, and a piece sheared off from the left edge. Every one of the 18 known specimens is struck after this die break occurred. To compensate, it seems that the mint workers made an effort to place the blanks slightly off-center on the die, so that most examples, including the present coin, are struck with the reverse slightly off center to the right, minimizing the impact of the die break at the left edge. Befitting the die’s importance as a masterwork of engraving, the die was used until it experienced advanced deterioration. By the time it was withdrawn from use, it had broken at two additional points on the edge, at 2:00 and at 3:00. The last known strike, no doubt soon before the die was withdrawn, seems to be Boston 411 (“r” in the list below), preceded by Hess-Leu 31, 141 = Basel 464 = NAC 13, 464 (“o” in the list below).

Eukleidas created a second die (Tudeer 59) with the same basic design of the facing and helmeted Athena, although with variations in the details. The second die is also a masterpiece. The order in which the two dies were used is clear because all coins from both dies are struck from a single obverse die (Tudeer obverse 21). Obverse die 21 was used with five different reverse dies, and the order of use can be determined with certainty by studying the gradual deterioration of the obverse die (see Tudeer p. 157).

Eukleidas’ second facing head die, which was again a reverse die and thus took the full force of the hammer, seems to have had a shorter life than the first, and only six tetradrachms from it are known. All the known examples exhibit a die break, which again must have begun almost with the first striking, stretching diagonally across the chin just below the mouth, starting as a thin crack but becoming a deep and wide break.

Thus ended Eukleidas’ revolutionary experiment with the facing head tetradrachm. But his work did not go unappreciated, and at least one of his contemporaries saw a solution to the technical problem caused by the deep relief of the facing head. Kimon, one of the most successful and widely influential of the Syracusan engravers, realized that the problem of die stress could be alleviated by moving the facing head to the obverse and the chariot to the reverse. Soon after the Eukleidas issue, perhaps within months, Kimon engraved his own facing head of Arethusa (Tudeer 80-81), placing the head on the obverse, and his facing head became one of the most influential of all coin designs, widely imitated in the ancient world.

Eukleidas was not the first engraver to attempt a facing head, but his magnificent artistry demonstrated the true potential of the concept. His contemporaries, through technical innovation, made the idea practical. Many engravers in various parts of the Greek world produced beautiful facing heads in the subsequent decades, but arguably none surpassed the artistic splendor of Eukleidas’ original creation.

List of All Known Specimens from Both Facing Athena Dies by Eukleidas

The 18 known specimens of Tudeer 58, beginning with the 12 known to Tudeer in 1913, are as follows:

a. Benson XII 353; SNG Lloyd 1384 (now in British Museum)
b. Berlin; Weil III 7
c. Berlin; from Loebbecke
d. Brussels; from Du Chastel; Borghesi Cat. 4 I 894; Holm V 12; Du Chastel VIII 90; Forrer p. 139
e. Brussels; from de Hirsch; from Dupre Cat. I 145; Froehner Annuaire de la Soc. Num. 3 II 31
f. Hess (1902) 658; previously Berlin, Fox, Thomas; Locker Lampson 94; Helbing (8 Nov 1928), lot 3654; Auctiones 20 (1990), lot 163; Kuenker 94 (2004), lot 404
g. London; BMC 198; Head Syracuse IV 10; Guide (2) XXVI 31; Hill Sicily VII 1; Macdonald Coin Types III 3
h. London; BMC 199
i. Paris; from de Luynes (1191)
j. Gulbenkian 282 and frontispiece
k. Leu 20 (1978), 46
l. Hess-Leu 7 (1957), 109; Muenzen und Medaillen 53 (1977), 39; Muenzen und Medaillen 54 (1978), 116; Birkler and Waddell I (1979), 55
m. Hess-Leu 11 (1959), 93; Leu (1976), 112; John D. Leggett, Jr. Collection (donated to American Numismatic Society [ANS 1997.9.55]);
n. Kunstfreund (Leu and M&M, 1974), 120
o. Hess-Leu 31 (1966), 141; Basel 464; NAC 13 (1998), 464
p. Leu 38 (1986), 37
q. NAC 59 (2011), 532 (the present coin)
r. Boston 411; from the Ognina Hoard, 1923, Noe, NNM 78, p. 197, no. 749

The six known examples of Eukleidas’ second facing Athena die, Tudeer 59, beginning with the two known to Tudeer in 1913, are as follows:

a. Pennisi
b. Vienna 6865
c. Leu 81 (2001), 108
d. Jameson 1833; Basel 465; NAC 13 (1998), 465
e. Muenzen und Medaillen 79 (1994), 180; LHS 95 (2005), 518
f. Hess-Leu 27 (1956), 190